A Womans best friend is her War Hound
by SuicidalBlackCat
Summary: A dog is truely mans best friend. Mercy Cousland shares the story of why her and her dog are so close.


A/N: I do not own DragonAge:Origins or any of the characters. Bioware and EA do. I do own Mercy Cousland though. She is my gameplay character, and Titan, the name given to her Mabari War Hound, is also mine.

Mercy sat down next to her hound, Titan, around the campfire and patted his head lovingly. She gave him a lamb bone she had bought from a merchant earlier and rested against him as he ate. Alistair walked over to them and sat next to Mercy. Titan stopped eating for a second to look up at Alistair and grunt approvingly.

"You know, you're lucky. Titan normally doesn't let men come near me." Mercy grinned slyly and laid her head on Alistairs shoulder. Alistair smiled and wrapped his arm around Mercy.

"I never knew the Mabari could show affection like this one does to you. I thought they were all serious, hard, work dogs who only knew how to kill, -atleast, that's all I've ever seen from them." Mercy shook her head.

"This is the most loving dog you will ever see. I raised him from a weanling little puppy. He's the only friend I've ever really had." Mercy looked up at Alistair and smiled. "Except you, of course."

Alistair laughed. "Well, I'm flattered." He kissed the top of her head and sighed. Titan finished his bone and nudged himself closer to Mercy. "This dog _really_ loves you, Mercy."

"He saved my life, you know." Alistair raised an eyebrow.

"Really?"

Mercy nodded. She shifted a bit and then took in a breath. Titan rested his head on her arm and whined happily at her. Talking about it was hard for Mercy, but, she hadn't told many people of this, and in doing so, a lot of people thought her and her dog were a bit odd.

"I was fourteen when it happened. It's still hard to talk about, makes me feel like an idiot for putting myself into a position where my dog had to save me."

Alistair looked at her more concerned this time. "Something serious happened?" Mercy nodded.

"When I was younger, I was a bit… rebellious. I didn't like being told what to do. I didn't like being a noble's daughter, where all this proper stuff was expected of me and I had to be _ladylike_ and all this stuff was forced down my throat. I wanted to be a dirty, mud-caked, fourteen year old girl who played in the woods and didn't worry about arranged marriages and how many different ways there were to hold a fork."

"All understandable things. When I was fourteen I wanted to look at girls and not worry about being slapped by the women at the chantry."

Mercy smiled at him and pet Titan once more. "Well, one day, I couldn't take the pressure anymore. I was done being a noble and I was going to run away! And live my life the way I wanted." She laughed again. " I think my plan was to live in the woods and rob traveling merchants to get by. I was going to change my name Edwinia and be a witch in everyone's eyes." She sighed. " I wish I would have been a little smarter that day."

"You're keeping me in suspense!" Alistair laughed. " Maker's Breath, what happened to you!"

"I was getting to that! Thank you!" Mercy snorted and then continued. " Well, I had gotten fed up with my mother and her consistent talking about how I would need to be married soon, and about how I needed to start meeting potential suitors and all this stuff that I didn't want to hear, so eventually I got fed up with it. I waited till everyone in the Estate was asleep and then packed a small bag and took Titan and left."

Alistair interrupted. "Weren't there gaurds on duty at night?"

"Yes, but they weren't the brightest of people. It was one of those situations where you throw a rock, they hear it hit something and leave their post to check out the noise. Then you are free to leave as you wish."

"Oh I love those kinds of guards!"

"As I was saying."

"Sorry." Alistair covered his mouth.

"Well, I left. As simple as that. I had some food to last a few days, some clothes, my dog, and a dagger. So, I ventured off into the woods, ready to start my life as a refugee. I set up a small tent for the night and was good…. Until I heard a noise. There was something rustling around outside my camp. Titan ran out to scare it off and I thought he had. The noise stopped and I went back to sleep."

"I'm going to assume that the noise started up again." Alistair let those words slip and then covered his mouth again, though you could still see a giant grin across his lips.

"You assume right. It came back, so I took my dagger and outside I went. Then I saw what might have been the biggest wolf I have ever seen, to this day even."

Mercy shifted again and then looked at the ground. Alistair knew this was getting to the part where it became hard for Mercy to talk about. He rested his face on his hands and listened on.

"The wolf caught me by surprise. It jumped on me and I couldn't fend it off. It started tearing at my face and neck, and I thought I was going to die right there. Titan was merely a puppy still, maybe six or seven months old. He had a good amount of weight on him so he managed to get the wolf off of me in time for me to stand up again." Mercy shook her head. "And this is where I start feeling really stupid. I set up my camp next to a cliff…"

"Oh dear." Alistair said. " I don't see this next part being any form of happy ending."

"The wolf jumped at me again, I stepped back, and didn't notice that I was at the edge of the cliff. I fell a good sixty feet to the ground and landed on my back…" Mercy sighed. " I blacked out, and when I woke up, I knew I had broken my back. Everything hurt. I couldn't move at all. I could barely wiggle my fingers and toes, which I rejoiced to the maker that I could move my toes at all, cause then I knew I wasn't paralyzed."

"What happened to the wolf?"

Mercy shrugged. "I don't know. I didn't see it again after that. Eventually I heard Titan barking and he managed to find me after traveling down the side steps of the cliff. But I was stuck there and it wasn't even daylight yet. My family didn't even know I was gone at this point. And I already could hear all the animals around me that smelled fresh blood."

Titan whimpered again. He knew what story Mercy was telling and it was apparently a hard story for even the hound to hear.

"Nothing attacked me during the night, thank the Maker for that. But, now it was daylight. I figured my family had noticed I was gone and were in a panic, but I was far from the Estate, and had fallen into a ravine. I didn't know how they were going to find me, and I was becoming weaker by the minute."

"Could you feel anything? Or were you numb to everything?"

"I didn't feel anything if I laid perfectly still. The second I moved a finger, or twitched a bit, all the pain came back to me. It was terrible. When night began to fall again, I became worried. Titan laid around me all night and wouldn't let anything near me, not even a raccoon could venture too close to where I laid. At that point I wasn't worried about the animals. I was becoming dehydrated. I didn't have my water jug, it was all back at the camp I had set up. Luckily there was a small tree above me. In the mornings the dew would drip off it's leave and onto my face."

Alistair let out a breath, as if he hadn't been breathing while Mercy was telling her story. "You were surviving off of dew dops?"

Mercy nodded. " I couldn't even urninate. I knew if I did it would wet my clothes and I would succumb to hypothermia in the night. Titan tried to lay on me to keep my warm, but he'd jump off after I'd scream in pain. At points, I would wish he wouldn't jump off. I would have overcome the pain in order to be warm."

" The second day I spent in that ravine, I could no longer hold it, and I had to wet myself. I hated myself for it, it was humiliating even for someone who was alone in the woods. I didn't think I could survive another night there. I was dehydrating fast, and I didn't know it, but I was losing a lot of blood. My cries for help were being silenced, I had no more strength to scream."

Mercy sighed again, and took in a breath. Alistair could see tears were welling up in her eyes.

"I pretty much gave up at that point. I didn't think anyone would find me. No one could hear me screaming, and I was dying by the second. I remember looking at Titan and thinking '_No one is going to be able to take care of you when I die. I'm sorry, boy.' _I remember crying and telling him I love him, and then he licked my face and whimpered, and then I closed my eyes and went to sleep, sure that I wasn't going to wake up in the morning."

Mercy wiped the tears off her face. " What I didn't know, though, is that after I went to sleep, Titan I guess mustered up enough courage to leave me. I don't know where he went, but I was awoken to a big, burly man standing above me, with his hand on my forehead. I remember his words perfectly."

' _Young lady, you have got one good dog..'_

Mercy wiped her face again and then continued.

"My parents had search parties looking for me, but they hadn't gone past where the Estate lines cut off. They didn't think I had gone that far. Apparently, Titan ran off and found the man who found me, and led him to me."

"How are you still walking? You broke your back." Alistair asked quietly, trying not to upset her.

"It took 12 different healers to put me back together. After they healed my back, they went back to, this time teaching me how to walk again. They told me I was a miracle case, anyone else would never be able to walk again."

Mercy sniffed in a breath and scratched Titan's head. "I owe my life to this animal. I would have died if he hadn't left me and gone and gotten help. I would have died the first night if he wasn't there to fend off the animals in the woods…. But, it's late. We have an early morning a head of us. Let's go to sleep, shall we?"

Mercy stood up and held out her hand to Alistair. It was clear to him that she no longer wanted to talk about this. He knew it was hard for her.

"Alright." He said. "I'll join you in the tent in a moment. I'll put the fire out." He kissed Mercy's knuckle and she smiled and walked away. Alistair got up and tended the fire, and then looked at Titan, who was laying under a small bush. He walked over to him and patted his head.

"Thank you, boy, for saving her for me." Titan barked happily and licked Alistairs hand. "A part of me would always feel empty if she never existed to me, and I would never have the priviledge to know to why."


End file.
